Tax Authority representative in U.S. arrested at airport
Legal source: Tax Authority head's note to Finance Minister violates ban on disclosure of details of probe against him.
By Jonathan LisThe Tax Authority's representative to the United States was arrested Monday evening at Ben Gurion International Airport, as the investigation into the authority's corruption scandal continued.
The representative, Yigal Sa'ar, was arrested upon landing in Israel from the United States. Police suspect that two businessman, Kobi Ben Gur and Yoram Karshi, had a hand in Sa'ar's appointment due to connections they had cultivated with the heads of the authority.
According to police, it is not clear whether Sa'ar was asked to exchange something in return for his appointment. He will be questioned by the National Fraud Investigation Unit in Bat Yam on Monday, and police believe he will be brought for an extension of his remand at the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
The police fraud unit on Monday called in two state officials to testify on the sequence of events that led to the alleged scandal.
Senior prime minister aide Oved Yehezkel was asked to testify on the conduct of Shula Zaken, the prime minister's bureau chief, in the office, as well as on the proceedings that led to her appointment.
The sister of the Tax Authority's director general, Edna Alfasi, who also serves as vice president of human resources in the state service, was asked to testify on the proceedings which led to her brother's appointment.
Meanwhile, police are to investigate fresh suspicions of obstruction of justice against Tax Authority Director Jacky Matza, after he sent a letter Sunday to Finance Minister Avraham Hirschson, in which he denied corruption allegations and disclosed details of the investigation into his activities.
Matza was released to 16-day house arrest Monday.
In the letter, which was widely published in the national press, Matza said that he "was amazed to hear the allegations that outsiders have leveled against me."
He said that his appointment to the post of Tax Authority chief was finalized after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz disqualified all candidates for the position who did not come from within the Authority.
Suspects undergoing police investigation are forbidden to discuss the details with anyone other than their attorney. The release of the letter, therefore, constitutes a failure on the part of the authorities overseeing Matza's arrest and investigation.
According to legal sources interviewed by Haaretz, the contents and dispatch of the letter are surprising, and it is likely that authorities will move to take punitive actions against Matza for sending it.
In the letter, Matza maintains that he received widespread recommendations for his appointment, including from his predecessor, Eitan Rub, as well as from a number of other former high-ranking tax officials.
He states that all appointments he made while serving as head of the Tax Authority were based on merit, and only after much consideration of the candidates' qualifications. Matza also expresses his support for Hirschson's decision to appoint Yossi Bachar as interim head of the Tax Authority, adding that he hopes the Authority will soon return to normal.
He also pledged to focus on the fight to clear his name and prove his innocence.
Matza was slated for release Sunday, but agreed to another day of detention in a deal made between his attorney and the police, in which he agreed to 16 days of house arrest and a restraining order barring him from setting foot on Tax Authority property for another 30 days.
The police Sunday held a confrontation between Matza and Shula Zaken, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's bureau chief, in order to examine contradictions in their accounts of conversations between them.
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Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson shaking hands Saturday with interim Tax Authority chief Yossi Bachar. (Dan Keinan) |
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Is that like our IRS? What does the Tax Authority's representative to the U.S. do? Does he fly in with an empty satchel, scoop up U.S. taxpayer dollars, and then fly back to Israel with them? Maybe the guy should have been arrested on our end.
Make no mistake, thieves do steal from thieves. After all, what better test of one's skill as a thief can there be? More troubling than the concept of thieves stealing from thieves is the almost complete lack of outrage at the claim there are thieves on the government payroll. The mildness of the few comments here suggests this society accepts thieves on the government payroll; and that would be quite a scathing comment by this society on itself. Now that's really troubling...
wall to wall padded cell that is what these guys should get the whole bunch of them they are no better than Arafat and Mazen. Corruption stinks regrdless of your race creed or color
Corruption permiates all levels of the government in this country,it must be found and those individuals weeded out and given jail terms. A country needs a government that it can trust free of corruption. All government agencies must be throughly investigated.
Do you zionists, ever mired in your own chosen prison of true tribal belief, ever wonder about the corruption of those who represent you? Does it matter? Or perhaps you are all enclosed in a snug little cacoon of the cozy lies which you have imbibed, which would seem to give you some sort of identity? Please wake up and start to think!
No that I wants to praise Matza, nor am I to hang him; but fairness has to be had at all sides. The media has already concluded that the guy is guilty, before he saw a day for his defense. It is too rich for Mazuz to try and find an opportunity to add item of "obstruction of justice" to the unknown indictment against Matza. But, it is also a white wash from Matza claim that Mazuz has disqualified the other candidates, lo and behold, because Matza was the only person with an internal experience in the Tax Authority. Sure Ehud Olmert and, Zaken, Elfassi and Mizrahi made sure to submit a list where the only candidate with enough experience will be Matza. Machiavelly from all sides; but the man, Matza, is entitled to his day in Court, without the media hukubalu. Common, Haaretz an the other "Liberal" Israeli media corrupt the rule of law by interferring through the spreading of rumours and hearsay. Just look at the cases of Ramon, the President Katsav; and so on and so on.
In this world innocents prefer innocents. Nothing abnormal about that. But thieves also prefer innocents. Why? Because they are easy targets. That`s why thieves don`t usually steal from thieves. Why? because usually bloodshed follows (Read: Mafiosi clans clashing with each other).
in pychology 101 we learn that the way a person relates to his peers is how he expects his peers to relate to him. For example an honest person expects people to act honestly and a thief expects other people to also be thieves. In my person experience, the people at the Israeli Tax Autority (mas hachnasa) are all thieves just because they treat everyone as theives!!!!
Matza maintains that he was elected to his post by "wall-to-wall approval". That's a most unusual achievement in Israel. So it depends now on how that "wall-to-wall" was achieved, and what the possible price was......